camping & prospecting Palmer River

Paul,
These guy's should be able to help you out.

nqminersden.net/

No affiliation, ect.

Regards

We were there last year in september. The road out from the main highway is slow but pretty good really until you get close to Maytown where it was a bit chopped up but nothing to worry about. One water crossing was ok. When you get to Maytown you find the historical people have been there and sign posted all the buiding sites. There is detrious in the form of broken pottery and bits of metal all over like an old tip. There is a shed where visiters have been depositing interesting bits and peices of horseshoes and stuff. Sign the book !

Nothing worth taking and I hope you dont either. There are old mines nearby and heaps of old machinery. One mine site has been rehabilitated with a new roof. Could spend a couple of days looking around easily.

The river had water flowing but not much. The crossing over to Palmerville is sign posted "definitely dont try" because you would need a lot of back up to do it. I was fascinated and wished we could stay a week but we had friends with a sked to keep.

The old coach road to Laura was badly scored by the recent cyclones and I read in this forum that it is still a hard trek. We took a day and a half to do the (I think) fifty k's up and down ridges and over creeks. I nearly tipped the hilux over once at one k per hour. I had the camper trailer too which meant getting a couple of tows to get up particularly bad and steep spots. Stout hearted only need apply! It had mine pounding a bit I confess.

We really had a good time and a real challenge. I would advise reading up a bit on the history and make it more interesting and meaningful. Like the man said, the Miners Den is a good place for advice. They can sell you the books too and maps if you want. I think there are restrictions on fossicking or prospecting but. You could check that out.

Wish I were there!

Owen

Hi Paul,

We were there about 10 days ago. We came in from the North and followed the Old Coach Road south after camping at Jowalbinna. The track from Laura is 80km and 50km from Jowalbinna with the 30km in between being a nice easy station track that was being graded when we went through. Heading from Jowalbinna (which is a very nice safari camp) it took 1hr45min to do the first 6 kms and a total of 5hr30min to do the full 50kms to Maytown. Hardest sections were the start where you start to climb the range and probably the 'faint track' (as per Ron & Viv Moons Cape York Book) from the Robert Logan Jack cairn. We towed a camper and was alone and although very challenging did it without damage or incident. You could say that some of the rock shelf jump-ups resemble sections of a 4wd competition course (I am not kidding either!). Take it slow and easy and allow around 6-7 hours - oh and start early if you can. There are a couple of spots to camp along the way in case you have a really slow trip. You don't need permission to camp anywhere along the main track and I would advise not to deviate from it either. You don't know how protective some miners can get.

Lots of great mines, old ruins and tracks around Maytown but there is very little left of the town itself. We camped in the Palmer River just down from Maytown (free camp) but should have camped further upstream at the Palmer River/Dead Dog Creek crossing. This is the main crossing into the Palmer River Goldfields and is truely beautiful with sandy banks, large grassy areas and flowing water around knee deep (free camping as well). The track from the Peninsular Developement Road to Palmer River crossing takes about 2 hours to do the 65kms and is a very windy track that follows the tops of the hills that form the range. Although in pretty good condition, it was a tedious drive due to the need to drive up and down steep sections with a camper.

There are a lot of tracks around the area which have 'No Entry' signs on them as there is still a lot of mining in the area so be careful. Haven't heard of anyone actually prospecting around the area with detectors and we hardly saw a sole (except for a friendly miner who waved to us when we drove past his house). We only had one day there but would have loved to have stayed 3 days and do a bit of detecting. We had a metal detector with us but were very rushed due to the need to get back to Mackay for work (had some holdups along the way and only arived home at 4:30 Sunday arvo).

I would have to rate this last part of our trip as one of the highlights. Hard 4wding, great history, old mining equipment and great camping.

Regards
David

Thank you all for your answers to my question, the membership fee is well worth it when up to date information can be be found. we will be leaving on this trip in mid August (looking forward to it) thank you all again I will write a report my we get back. Regards Paul H